Warhammer Quest Cursed City: Finishing the Baddies

Today is going to be a bit of a bigger update summing up what I got done over the summer. The focus is still on finishing up the miniatures from Warhammer Quest: Cursed City – I completed the roster of villains and am in the process of painting the heroes.

Pict 1054: Battle in the Cursed City

Pict 1055: Gorslav the Gravekeeper and Torgilius the Chamberlain

Pict 1056: Gorslav the Gravekeeper and Torgilius the Chamberlain

First up, here is the evil monk Gorslav. In the end I went with the dark robes because they looked allright once I highlighted them. Once again a very menacing model, really fitting into the grimdark/horror setting of Cursed City. His ability to bury the heroes alive is very evocative and frightening!
Torgilius, however, is probably the one model I like the least from the whole set. He a simple Necromancer and I'm not to happy with my colour choice. He might even look better in the photo?

Pict 1057: Vyrkos Blood-born

Pict 1058: Vyrkos Blood-born

Next up are the feral Vyrkos Blood-born. Once again amazing models and I appreciate them even more after finishing them. I went with a very bright skintone similar to how they are shown on the boxart. I do like the effect and decided to use this scheme going forward with the rest of my Vampires. I might even have to go over my older Vampires to bring them into line.

Pict 1059: Radukar the Wolf and Korsagi Nightguard

Pict 1060: Radukar the Wolf and Korsagi Nightguard

And onto the Big Bad of the Campaign: Radukar the Wolf and his bodyguard of undead Ogres, the Korsagi Nightguard. Radukar seems a bit small in comparison, but I do like his stance with one fist forward and his vicious sword ready to strike. The Nightguard were a joy to paint and look really great in their red coats.

Pict 1061: Additional Objective Markers and Gravestones

After finishing up the baddies, I took a bit of a pause from painting and to get back into it, I did these five simple models here: two additional Gravestones and three more Objective Markers to bring a bit more variety into my games. All in all quite simple, mainly converted from leftover parts of the old Citadel Woods, the Garden of Morr and the Cursed City Zombies themselves.

Pict 1062: Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry

Pict 1063: Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry

So now, I've only got the heroes of the game left to paint and I already started with the two Loremasters: Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry. The main hurdle for the heroes seems to be deciding on a colour scheme. After I get the base colours down and a wash on the model, they go very quick. Octren was the easier one of the two since I decided to go with very bright blue robes for Cleona that took some work. I also converted her a bit by removing her headdress and the streamers on her back - now she still looks fantastical to me but no longer that over-the-top.

Pict 1064: Lù Duan

Pict 1065: Lù Duan

And lastly onto something completley different: I recently got to play in an Infinity tournament (my first one of N4) and I needed this Lù Duan for my list. I hadn't painted any Infinity models since the Sekban from over a year ago and I have to say it was a blast – a simple and quick colour scheme and a great joy to see the Agrellan Earth do pretty much all the basing on itself.

Painting the Vargskyr and Zombies

The parade of Undead on my painting desk marches on: these past two weeks I managed to finish the Vargskyr as well as the Zombies from the Cursed City box. While painting the Zombies I also started painting Gorslav. I also build a few more miniatures, among them a conversion for a mounted Isildur.

Pict 1049: Vargskyr leading Deadwalkers

Pict 1050: Vargskyr

Pict 1051: Vargskyr

First up has to be my Vargskyr. I love the model – very imposing and menacing, just right to take some nice pictures of him. He uses pretty much the same colours as the batswarms, only a bit more involved with blending on the larger surface.

Pict 1052 - Deadwalker Zombies

At first I was unsure, how to paint the (un)dead skin of these Zombies – I could have imagined using more muted colours on the clothing and chaning the skintones. But in the end I went with the bright and colourful clothing to make them stand out. The jumping of point for this was the sculpt of one of the female Zombies with the headdress. I simply had to paint her inspired by the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer. So while I was at it, I looked at other paintings of Vermeer's and painted the other dresses accordingly.

Pict 1053: Gorslav the Gravekeeper (WIP)

Lastly here is a quick WIP of Gorslav the Gravekeeper. He is ready for highlighting, but I'm not quite sure if I like his solid black robes. I'll have to see, how they look when I highlight them but for now they are to clean! After finishing him, I have only the big villains and the heroes left to – I'm still undecided but I might do the Korsargi Nightguard next.

More Cursed City Beasts

I used the past two weeks to paint up some more Cursed City enemies. I finished the Bat Swarms and made good progress on the Vargskyr. Last week, I also got to play a game of Infinity – my first one of N4 and the first in about one and a half years!

Pict 1044: Bat Swarms

Pict 1045: Cursed City Bat Swarms

These Bat Swarms are really nice miniatures and painted up quite fast. If there were rules to add in the Fell Bats from the Soulblight Gravelords range into Cursed City, I could see myself getting a box and painting them up in the same scheme. They might even pull double duty and get used as Gundabad War Bats in MESBG, even if the bases would not match up.

Pict 1046: Vargskyr (WIP)

And here is another WIP of the Vargskyr - quite a big model! The brighter underside and the claws are still left to do and I'm pretty happy with the blend on the hands for example. Once the base is done, it will be a really great center piece!
After the Vargskyr I will get onto the Zombies and then its not that much more to have a fully painted game!

Pict 1047: Combined Army vs. Haqqislam

And of course, to celebrate me playing a game of Infinity, here are a few of the MVPs and their nemeses. I managed to incur only a minor loss and had great fun – will have to play more games soon! And lastly one scenic shot of my Bounty Hunter on bike masquerading as a Kum Rider.

Pict 1048: Authorized Bounty Hunter

Cursed City Rats and Objectives

These past two weeks I got to some more models from the Cursed City box: I painted the swarms of Corpse Rats and all of the objectives and the additional pieces such as the cats and the gargoyles. I also started painting the Vargskyr.

Pict 1039: Cursed City Objectives

Pict 1040: Corpse Rats

First up, here are the Corpse Rats. Quite nice swarms and not to many colours so they painted up rather fast. Only hurdle is that they are quite fiddly and some of the rats in the middle are hard to reach. All in all, they are surely not my best paintjobs, but as always a nice base elevates a mediocre paintjob and the goal was the finish them to play the game with painted miniatures.

Pict 1041: Cursed City Objectives

These were quite fun to convert - just switching a few bits around to make them all unique and my own. The gravestone required a bit of shaving because of some sculpted roses and the other marker comes from one of the zombies themselves. I quite like the mechanic in the game where they use these gravestones to spawn more zombies and I plan to make some more to make the game a bit harder and have the possibility for a real zombie horde.

Pict 1042: Diregargoyles and Gnawbone Strays

These few miniatures seem to be pretty much only filler since there was space on the sprues. I have not yet found any use for them in the game, but who could say no to cats? I really had some great fun putting moss on the gargoyles - great miniatures!

Pict 1043: Vargskyr (WIP)

And lastly here is a WIP of my Vargskyr. A very cool model and I think it will look great once I have blended the colours!

The Ulfenwatch shambling along

These past two weeks I painted the Ulfenwatch including Watchmaster Halgrim, I had started as well as a bit more scenery from the Garden of Morr kit.

Pict 1033: Watchmaster Halgrim and the Ulfenwatch

Pict 1034: Watchmaster Halgrim and Ulfenwatch Skeletons

Pict 1035: Watchmaster Halgrim and Ulfenwatch Skeletons

In the end, these skeletons painted up quite nicely. With all of the corrosion, they are quite colourful – more than I'd usually paint. But I really enjoyed seeing them come together. I do like the faded red cloth and will probably use it as a main colour going forwards with the Cursed City box.

Pict 1036: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

I also painted up the last Mausoleum from the Garden of Morr. The base was already done and I did take a little more time building because I removed all the roses. I even got myself some protective gloves sice I had cut my fingers on this project so many times...

The two pieces of Wall painted up pretty quickly as well. With them beeing higher they are great to block line of sight as well as providing obstacles. And they will look good in the background of future scenic photo shots!

Pict 1038: Ruins of Osgiliath (Fornost)

While I was at it with the scenery, I also tried out my recipe for a piece of the Osgiliath Ruins set. I really enjoy how it ties in with the rest of my terrain! So my planned Osgiliath board will migrate further north and become part of the ruins of Arnor, maybe Fornost?

Looking at Walls

Man, I can't believe it's already been four weeks since my last post – how time flies! Anyways - here is an update of what I got done in the meantime: I finished more parts of the Garden of Morr and while I was at it also painted a set of walls and fences. Slowly but surely my collection of terrain is shaping up to something! Besides that building the rest of the Cursed City box took an astonishing amount of time. Of course I converted a few things, but still...

Pict 1026: Garden of Morr

Pict 1027: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1028: Garden of Morr Bases

The next few pieces of my Garden of Morr set: a mausoelum and the base for another one. After that I'm only missing the wall sections. These might take a litte bit more time however, because I will want to remove all the scuplted roses like a lunatic.

Pict 1029: Walls and Fences

I'm quite happy with the colours and the process on my terrain and thus painting up this set of Warhammer Fantasy Walls and Fences went pretty quickly. Not to much sculpted pieces of foliage to remove as well. Putting on the different bits of greenery did propable take as much time as the painting.

Pict 1030: Gorslav, Kitty, Togilius and Emelda Braskov (Conversions)

Here are the first few models I converted from the Cursed City box. Emelda on the right is a simple repose while the others are a bit more involved. Torgilius needed decluttering and had to leave most of his pets at home and got a simple cloak instead. I like how this leaves him pretty much a creepy old man with his pet fox.

The box comes with two zombie cats and of course that's a great frame to make a living cat! The head is a bit big but I'm pretty happy with my sculpting nonetheless. Can't wait to get some paint on it!

Gorslav the Gravekeeper seemed a bit to much like he came right out of a videogame (propably a Souls game). His mask might be cool and creepy to some but for me it triggered the goofy meter. So I used the head of the Zombie he has on his base and got him a fresh new hairdo in the form of a tonsure. I really like the look of him as a evil monk! "Something happened to Brother Gorslav – he just seems a shadow of his cheery former self..." That's a short story just waiting to be put on paper!

Pict 1031: Deadwalker Zombies (Conversions)

I also found the Zombies to be too cluttered. Getting them to a more agreeable point took a bit more work removing the gravestones and all of the vines. I then resculpted their backs and used pieces of greenstuff to show the ends of the stakes. Somehow I can accept these as part of the precautions one might put in place to make sure granny will not come back as a vampire. Seems sensible to me!

Pict 1032: Númenorean Bannerbearer and Captain

While I was in build mode, I also quickly threw together these two Númenorean Warriors. The guy with the sword is a conversion straight out of the first Lord of the Rings rulebook that came with the Fellowship box set in 2001. The sword as well as the banner are looted from a mounted Boromir and the rest of the model will also be put to good use once I get to it.

This Corrosion

The only model I finished the past two weeks was the first mausoleoum from the Garden of Morr kit. But I also started to paint more of the same graveyard as well as more little critters from the ArcWorlde Bestiary. Oh, and then there was this boxed game where you fight undead? Propably should build and paint some of those too!

Pict 1019: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1020: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1021:Garden of Morr Mausoleum

Pict 1022: Garden of Morr Mausoleum

I very much enjoyed the corrosion effects on this mausoleum. The verdigris works better on the more structured surfaces such as the grave slab than on the roofs. I will still do some experimenting on these larger, flat areas, maybe adding in some more green or going for more streakes and less splotches on the next one. But I am very happy with the rusted iron bars!
I also got some diffently coloured flock for the moss and will add this to my other scenery to make it look a bit more visually interesting and alive.

Pict 1023: Garden of Morr Mausoleum (WIP)

And here then are the next steps in painting the Garden of Morr. The piece with the larger exposed grave also holds a mausoleum but I have not built that quite yes as I want to get rid of all the modeled roses. That's what's keeping me from getting to the walls as well, but for now I think the small buildings will look great together anyways.

Pict 1024: Mjowls and Faery Dragon (WIP)

These cute litte beasties then are the Mjowls and the Faery Dragon from ArcWorlde. They are quite far along with basecoats and washes done and I should finish them within a few day. If only no other projects jumps the queue...

Pict 1025: Ulfenwatch (WIP)

And lastly here is a foray into the Cursed City: a bunch of skeletons. Had to get my head around building these models, these modern plastic kits by GW really are engineering marvels and I'm currently more used to building metal models or about 20 year old plastics! Paintswise I'm going with something similar to the boxart but I'm already looking forward to rust them after they had their washes!